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Latest reviews – Page 435
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Reviews
The Wedding Date
Dir: Clare Kilner. US. 2005. 85minsImagine Pretty Womanin reverse. Instead of a handsome, sophisticated businessman hiring abeautiful, vivacious call girl to serve as his date for the weekend, it is thewoman, in this case sweet but neurotic, who pays a professional male escort topose as her boyfriend for three days. ...
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Reviews
Rize
Dir. David LaChapelle.US. 2004. 84mins.A delirious celebrationof dance, Rize is an eye-popping portrait of a south-central Los Angelescommunity that has turned its back on gang culture to embrace the music andmotion of a dance craze known as "krumping".Having screened inSundance's American Spectrum strand, where Lions Gate Films acquired worldwiderights, this ...
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Reviews
Constantine
Dir: Francis Lawrence.US. 2005. 121mins.The Matrix meets The Exorcist in Constantine, orat least that how things superficially appear. In fact, while it does sharesome characteristics - including its distributors and star Keanu Reeves - withthe Wachowski brothers' trilogy, this graphic novel adaptation from Warner andVillage Roadshow also has enough atmosphere ...
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Reviews
Boogeyman
Dir:Stephen Kay. US. 2005. 86mins. Hollywood'srun of low-cost, high return horror movies looks set to continue with Boogeyman,a young-skewing chiller that's better than its generic sounding title suggests.With a stronger than expected US opening under its belt, this second projectfrom Ghost House Pictures - the joint venture between Mandate Pictures(formerly ...
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Reviews
The Squid And The Whale
Dir: Noah Baumbach. US.2005. 81mins.Noah Baumbach, afilm-maker who made a splashy debut with three pictures in the mid-90s (Kicking& Screaming, Mr Jealousy, Highball), returns with astingingly honest, admirably unsentimental autobiographical portrait of hisparents' divorce which marks him out - again - as one of the smartest young USfilm-makers around today.One ...
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Reviews
Brick
Dir/scr. Rian Johnson.US. 2005.Shot in 20 days with alow, low budget, Brick is an exciting debut from director-screenwriterRian Johnson. Having screened in American Dramatic Competition at Sundance, thefilm sold worldwide rights to Focus Features for nearly $3m and earned aSpecial Jury prize for originality of vision - and rightly so.The ...
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Reviews
The Emperor's Journey (La Marche De L'Empereur)
Dir: Luc Jacquet. Fr.2004. 84mins.Although Cole Porterdidn't specifically mention them by name, penguins do it too, and Luc Jacquet'slyrical documentary continues the successful trend of wildlife and nature filmsthat have revitalised a genre long relegated to unimaginative, formatted TVfare.Though less wondrous andexhilaratingly spectacular than previous French productions such as Microcosmosor ...
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Reviews
06/05
Dir: Theo van Gogh. The Netherlands, 2004. 120 mins06/05 has considerable, albeit morbid, fascination as thelast feature of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was killed by an Islamicextremist in November 2004. There are uncanny parallels between Van Gogh's owndismal fate and the events he depicts in the film. ...
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Reviews
Forty Shades Of Blue
Dir: Ira Sachs. US. 2004. 107minsThe winner of this year'sGrand Jury Prize for best American dramatic feature at the Sundance FilmFestival, Ira Sachs second full-length film certainly lives up to its title. Anentire spectrum of loneliness is explored in this intimate, naturalistic studyof a young Russian mother's cultural and emotional ...
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Reviews
The Shutter (Sutter Kodtid Winyan)
Dirs: Parkpoom Wongpoom,Banjong Pisanthanakun. Thai. 2004. 95mins.The Shutter is a film happily demonstrating that it is possibleto combine all the familiar staples of the current Japanese-Korean horror boomand still come up with some new chills and an entertaining picture.A low-budget ghost picturefrom Thailand, the film follows a couple of twenty-somethings ...
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Reviews
With Blood On My Hands ' Pusher II (Pusher II)
Dir/scr: Nicolas Winding Refn. Den. 2004. 96minsAfter Pusher and Bleeder,Nicolas Winding Refn's third low-life drama could easily have been called Loser,with its portrait of a small-time thug on the skids. Going back to realistroots after a bold detour with the US-set existential thriller Fear X,Denmark's Refn offers his most confident ...
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Reviews
I Am A Sex Addict
Dir/scr:Caveh Zahedi. US. 2005. 90minsAttimes, you don't know whether to laugh or cringe at I Am A Sex Addict, awitty, self-reflexive, often painfully revealing drama-doc confessional from USindependent film-maker Caveh Zahedi. As the title suggests, the film isZahedi's account of some 20 years struggling with his fetish for prostitutes,an obsession ...
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Reviews
The Upside Of Anger
Dir/scr: Mike Binder. US.2004. 116mins.Enigmatic stand-up comic,actor, writer and film-maker Mike Binder whose credits include Londiniumand The Sex Monster, has crafted an enigmatic fourth film in TheUpside Of Anger. The independently financed, star-studded affair is acurious blend of romantic comedy, women's melodrama and shaggy dog story whichhas a shot at ...
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Reviews
Why We Fight
Dir. Eugene Jarecki. US.2004. 98mins.Any serious documentary,one hopes, strives to provoke. Eugene Jarecki's scintillating Why We Fight isa marvel of restraint, making it all the more provocative. Following on fromhis 2002 title The Trials Of Henry Kissinger, he here explores themilitary-industrial complex that has been a primary engine of the ...
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Reviews
Hardcore
Dir. Dennis Iliadis. Gre.2004. 98minsA promising sketch ratheran actual probe into Athens' sleazy dives, lo-fi drama Hardcorenevertheless shows distinct promise for debut feature film-maker DennisIliadis.While his film-making giftsclearly need more mileage to mature, Iliadis' first feature neverthelessmaintains a steady course between coyness and titillation, conveying in theprocess a credible and ...
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Reviews
Alone In The Dark
Dir: Uwe Boll. US. 2004.96mins.Feeling like a throwbackto the video quickies of the late 1980s, Alone In The Dark, from Germandirector Uwe Boll, is an amusingly cheesy screen version of the popular Atarivideo game of the same name. Economical screen versions of video game hits havesometimes worked well in the ...
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Reviews
Hide And Seek
Dir: John Polson. US.2004. 105mins.A good cast and somespooky build-up fall victim to cliched plotting and an unlikely surprise endingin suspense thriller Hide And Seek, the second US film from Australiandirector (and actor) John Polson. The cast, headed by Robert De Niro and rising10-year-old star Dakota Fanning, might get the ...
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Reviews
Hustle & Flow
Dir/scr. Craig Brewer.US. 2004. 114mins.Hustle & Flow sets a new standard for films about rap music, ifonly because it's a strong-piece of story-driven filmmaking in its own right.While 8 Mile was a star-vehicle for rapper Eminem, the new film exploresnot just the making of the music - by any means ...
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Reviews
The Magic Roundabout (La Manege Enchante)
Dirs: Dave Borthwick, Jean Duval, Frank Passingham. 2005. UK-Fr. 81minsRemaking 1960sfive-minute children's TV show The Magic Roundabout as a full-lengthcomputer-animated feature always seemed a somewhat unlikely project. Sadly, theresulting $24m Anglo-French co-production explains why.The original series beganlife as La Manege Enchante on French TV in 1964. In the UK the ...
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Reviews
Hard Candy
Dir: David Slade. US.2005. 103mins.Whip-crackingly tautpsychological drama Hard Candy is the most talked about movie atSundance this year and one of the most riveting directorial debuts seen at thefestival in a few years. A two-hander in which a teenage girl turns the tableson the paedophile who has picked her up ...